Yesterday, Glenn Beck went on a ‘rant’ about the need to defend and preserve the Constitution being the key to ‘saving’ America. He is wrong! The key to understanding the principles of liberty is not found in the Constitution. They are found in the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution is just the “how” of America; the “what” and the “why “of this nation is found in the Declaration. But it takes some effort to understand why this is. Unfortunately, our schools not only don’t teach it anymore, they teach misinformation based on lies and intended to prevent students from learning the history behind the Declaration of Independence and how the principles and ideals expressed by it were used to create the Constitution. And although this information is readily available to those who want to find it, the average American doesn’t bother to look for or read it. Our society has all night for television, Xbox and their smart phone, but little time for the principles that make all those things possible. Well, if you care to learn, I’ll do my best to provide you with the Cliff Notes version of what you need to know to understand why the Constitution cannot and will not protect us.
If both of these documents were lost to mankind for one thousand years and then re-discovered, the Constitution would not be enough to provide man with the information he would need to govern himself the way our founders did. However, the Declaration of Independence would provide enough guidance that man could find his way back to the nation our founders created.
The Constitution does not explain from whence our rights are derived. Nor does it provide for any measure of defense against encroachment on those rights, nor recourse in the event of tyranny. What’s more, if we only had the plain language of the document itself, the Constitution can be construed as to be unlimited in scope. The fact that the general welfare clause has been used to justify anything the government wants to do is evidence enough that the Constitution is not the document we believe it to be – at least, not without the principles and ideals of the Declaration standing behind it to guide our application of the Constitution.
On the other hand, the Declaration does not provide us with any protections against encroachment, either. However, what the Declaration does provide is infinitely more important. It provides the principles by which we can construct a just government to protect our rights, as well as guidelines for when and how we can correct tyranny – should it ever arise. The Declaration explains the source of our rights, and that this source is the reason every individual shares equally in their claim to their rights. The Declaration even explains what some of our most important rights are. This is why, unlike the Constitution, the Declaration is the key to preserving individual rights and liberty. It is because the Declaration – not the Constitution – contains the spirit of America. This is why “America” is any place where the spirit of the Declaration rules:
“Where liberty dwells, there is my nation.”
–Benjamin Franklin
Unfortunately, the Declaration of Independence has been intentionally divorced from the Constitution. The founders never intended this to happen because, without the rudder of the Declaration, the Constitution becomes a drifting vessel that will go with sentiments of the times. The founders knew this to be true. It is why they reminded us that the document that actually formed this nation remains a part of our law every bit as much as the Constitution and that it should always remain a part of our law:
“Before the formation of this Constitution…[t]his Declaration of Independence was received and ratified by all the States in the Union and has never been disannulled.”
–John Quincy Adams
There is a reason the Declaration has been divorced from the Constitution. Every key principle or idea in the Declaration is firmly rooted in the tenants of Biblical teachings and the Judeo/Christian faith. To those who study the ‘science’ of revolution, it has long been accepted that one of the primary goals of a revolutionary is to undermine the peoples’ belief in God. This is because the revolutionary is seeking control, and so long as the people have an allegiance to a higher authority (i.e. God), they will resist the revolutionary’s efforts. In the case of Christianity, where family and education are an integral part of the Christian faith, the necessity to undermine and discredit the belief in God is all the more compounded. This is because seizing control of the schools and undermining the bond of the family unit are also key steps in the revolutionary’s plan to subvert a society. There is much, much more to this, but it is the subject for another post. What matters for the issue at hand is that, today, we have largely accepted the lies of these revolutionaries within our society. We reject the fact that this nation was founded upon Judeo/Christian principles, choosing instead to believe in myths of our own creation – such as the founders were all Deists. Or worse, we simply ignore the importance of the principles underlying the Declaration and their origins all together. And that is a win for the revolutionary.
When a people forget their heritage, they cease to be a people at all. At that point, they are nothing but a mob in search of direction, and the revolutionary stands ready to step in and provide it. It is the creation of this very situation for which he has been steadily working and waiting all along…
[NOTE: there is another book that could provide all the information necessary to re-construct our founders understanding of the principles of liberty. That is the Bible. So, between the work Cicero did deriving his understanding of natural law and the principles of liberty and that our founders did using Scripture, we see that there does exist a universal Natural Law. The evidence is in the fact that both Cicero and the founders – guided by the Bible – arrived at essentially the same understanding of these principles. Furthermore, Cicero and the founders are not alone in their derivations. There are other examples. It’s just that these two provide the clearest illustration since one was a pagan who knew nothing of the Bible and the other were primarily Bible believing Christians. In other words, Cicero affirms what Scripture says about Natural Law being revealed to all men, so that none can claim any excuse for their rebellion against God and God’s law.]
The Oil for Your Lamp 
Great post! That would be why there are numerous quotes from the likes of Adams and Washington and others that say- paraphrasing; the constitution is wholly inadequate except for the governance of a religious and moral people.
Mike,
Exactly, and Amen.
(oh, and thanks :*) )
Mike,
Exactly, or
Perfect, or
Amen
😉
That’s a great article! It makes me happy that I went to Hillsdale College where a course on the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, and Anti-Federalist papers is mandatory. As the professor told us, many colleges do not teach courses on these documents, saying that they are outdated and unnecessary. It’s a shame to think that the majority of the intelligentsia hold the latter belief!
My friend, you can get a LAW degree without ever being required to read the Constitution! Even from Harvard and Yale!!!
Another point (and the subject of a forthcoming post) ‘intelligence’ does not mean ‘wisdom.’ Neither does ‘education.’ This is why so many who have raw intelligence and those who have a lot of ‘education’ so often think they are better than others: because they lack the WISDOM to know better.